“I know,” I tell her. “You love him. I can hardly believe it all myself.”
“I…,” she lets out a deep sigh. “It’s just…something inside me is screaming that he didn’t do this. He wouldn’t.”
“But, Tullz,” I say softly. “Every little bit of evidence points directly at him.”
“I know,” she tells me. “But it doesn’t make sense. Why would he do that to you? It just doesn’t seem right. He wouldn’t do it, Henley. I know him, right down to the bone. He’s a good guy and he’s loyal as hell.”
“Then why the hell did he disappear like that?”
I feel her shrug against me. “I don’t know. If I could just see him for even a few minutes, I swear, I’d be able to work it out. I don’t think he’s the type to just disappear for doing something like that. If he betrayed you, he’d face it like a man. That’s just who he is. Something else has to be going on here.”
“But what?”
“I don’t know,” she groans. “That’s why I need to see him. He’ll talk to me.”
“Are you sure though? You’ve known him since you were eleven and he’s never shared anything about his personal life before.”
“That’s because I’ve never pushed him on it,” she explains. “If I really tried, he’ll tell me. At least…he owes me that much.”
I let out a sigh, unsure how to respond. We lay in silence a while, both of us staring up at the ceiling, lost in our own thoughts. “You know, he ended things with Alyssa this morning,” I inform her.
“How do you know that? Did he show up at school?”
“No,” I rush out, shaking my head. “He texted her. Told her to quit messaging him.”
Anyone would think that she’d be thrilled about this news, but she knows Rivers, more than I do and on a different level than Noah, so I’m not surprised when she scoffs, the news clearly not bringing the same kind of joy as anyone else in this kind of situation. “He’s severing all ties.”
“That’s what Noah said,” I murmur, pressing my lips together into a tight line, hating to be the one to break that news to her. “He thinks he’s not coming back.”
Tully doesn’t reply, just stares off into the room, as quiet as a mouse.
When the silence becomes too much for me to bear, I silently murmur, nudging her arm to draw her attention. “Are you ok?” I question, hating the pained look upon her face.
She shrugs her shoulders and the move tears me apart. I can’t stand seeing her in pain. I couldn’t even begin to imagine what she’s going through. I know they weren’t together, but they may as well have been. They were crazy in love and now she’s left wondering what the hell happened, where he is, and if he’s alright. Not to mention, wondering if he had it in himself to betray her trust.
I wouldn’t want to be in her position.
“What about you?” she questions.
I turn and look at her in confusion. “Um…I’m fine,” I say slowly. I mean, yeah, it sucks, but my heart’s not going through the wringer like hers is right now.
Tully rolls her eyes. “I meant about everything else. You haven’t really talked about the whole ‘mom’ bomb your dad dropped on you the other week.
I let out a sigh and scrunch up my face, wondering why the hell she’d have to go and bring that shit up. “I’m hoping that if I don’t talk about it, I can forget it ever happened.”
“Well, tough shit,” she tells me. “If you don’t talk about it, it’s going to sit inside that brain of yours, growing into something bigger than it needs to be.”
I scrunch up my face, knowing she’s right. Dad had dropped a massive bomb on me two weeks ago and revealed that the woman who I always thought was my mother, isn’t. My mom is some lady named Gina who gave me up to dad when I was only a few days old. Great news for my abandonment issues. Not only did I have the woman I thought was my mother for the first twelve years of my life walk out on me, but I also had a second mom abandon me as well. How did I ever become so lucky?
I guess I would have been able to deal with it had dad not also revealed that her surname is Rivers. Since that moment, all I’ve been able to think about is if this woman is also Rivers’ mother too. Every day I go over Rivers’ features in my mind, trying to figure out if there are any similarities between us. If only he was here to offer up a little assistance.
All I know is that the thought of Rivers possibly being my half brother has been weighing heavily on my mind for the past two weeks and not knowing if it’s true or not is really starting to drive me insane. After all, the guy betrayed me. It would be so much worse finding out that not only my friend betrayed me, but that I’ve been betrayed by my own flesh and blood.